Friday, July 13, 2012

Geffen Gets Rich Penthouse

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Brace yourselves, butter beans, because the big money real estate shit is going down again in New York City where soon-to-be ex-American Denise Rich has reportedly cut a deal to sell her titanic duplex penthouse to none other than L.A.-based billionaire David Geffen.

According to the Page Six peeps at the New York Post Mister Geffen will shell out $54,000,000 for the (mc)mansion-sized Fifth Avenue aerie Miz Rich heaved and hoed onto the open market in January (2012) with a $65,000,000 price tag.

The super-sized penthouse—two full floors with a 3,000-plus square foot roof terrace—spans 12,000 square feet and in its current, somewhat Byzantine configuration, as per the floor plan included with current marketing materials, includes 4-7 bedrooms including a cell-sized staff room on the lower floor, 9 full and 2 half bathrooms; a 1,200 square foot "grand salon" with panoramic city and park views; library with wet bar and fireplace; a 30-foot long media room on the lower floor with adjoining billiard room; six, park-view planting terraces (plus the massive roof terrace); three kitchens; and a park-view fitness room complete with sauna, steam shower and bidet.

Unidentified sources told The Post the large-livin' Dreamworks co-founder "will take up to two years" on extensive renovation and reconfiguration that will include the removal of Miz Rich's state-of-the-art, at-home recording studio.

Current listing information shows the building allows for 50% financing—although we imagine Mister Geffen has the dough to pay all cash iffin he wanted to—and the monthly maintenance and cooperative common charges are shown at $25,000 per month.

Mister Geffen already owns a recently renovated, two-unit combo spread at The Parq Cinq—a white glove cooperative building originally designed by Emory Roth (that does not allow dogs)—he picked up (off-market) in February 2010 for $14,170,000 from Robert Daly and Carole Bayer Sager.

Mister Geffen is hardly a stranger to mouth-dryingly expensive New York City real estate. In February 2006 he spent $31,500,000 to buy a duplex penthouse pad at the impossibly swank 810 Fifth Avenue. The 5,000-ish square foot penthouse was once part of Nelson Rockefeller's original triplex that got split up with he and Mary Tod Rockefeller divorced in the early 1960s. He bought the penthouse from private equity pasha John Foster and flipped just over a year later, in May 2007, for $37,842,187 to multi-billionaire Blackstone Group co-founder Pete Peterson.

Mister Geffen also owns the legendary 10-acre Jack Warner estate in Beverly Hills, CA (plus at least one, much smaller residence, also in the 90210) and an ocean front compound on Malibu's Carbon Beach (plus a smaller Carbon Beach house a few doors down bought from restaurateur Peter Morton in 2008 for $9,800,000).

Miz Rich made all the papers earlier this week when it was announced she would surrender her U.S. citizenship and passport in order to settle down somewhere in Europe where her children live and where she'll likely be able to engineer a more advantageous tax situation to protect her fortune.

Absolutely divine. The views are gorgeous and I suppose I could work with that space. I would do so much with that flat and give it the Petra touch. I am quite friendly with David Geffen and I a congratulatory text is in order? What can I say...the man has fabulous taste.

I suppose she is a tad better than her crooked husband who was shamefully pardoned by Clinton in return for a big humongous bribe. At least she has written some songs, whatever kind of feather that might be in her bonnet. I do find the canopy over the bed ridiculously pretentious. Isn't her fortune enough without pretending to be Marie Antoinette? Geffen seems over rewarded, though not a crook. to me, but American society will pay any amount to spinners of dreams for the stuck-in-the-mud masses. Anyway I think anybody who moves out of the US to escape taxes should be put on a list of "never admit" for the future.

Someone's got her thong in a twist. What does Romney or Obama have to do with this? Nothing.

What does the taxes you or I pay have to with her? Again, nothing. She's leaving to dodge the massive tax bills she would otherwise receive, and which someone of her wealth can easily afford. That's fact. Now, you can call her either wise or shady for this, but there's no need to serve as some sort of self-appointed Denise Rich defender. She's a smart lady who knows exactly what she's doing and what people will say.

Clowns and hypocrites. Denise Rich has already paid taxes on her earnings, every year, just like the rest of us. Not to mention she's contributed more to charity than all of us combined will ever make in our lifetimes.

She's now living in Europe. The US thinks everyone owes it a living no matter where they reside and where they earn their money, just because they possess a US passport.

I would consider doing the exact same thing if I was living abroad and tired of being financially raped to fund wars and fund dishonest Wall Street banksters.

Why would someone want to spend money they didn't have to? I see this as no different than shopping around for consumer goods to get the best price.

Have none of you ever bought goods made in China because they cost less than ones made in the US? If so, you've helped put an American worker out of a factory job. That is dare I say, slightly more "treasonous" than moving to another country and taking your assets with you.

Again, I repeat, she's already paid taxes on her earnings, she's not evading her tax commitment, she's merely moved elsewhere and obviously to a place that charges less tax. It's common financial sense and it's her legal right.

Not saying you're right or wrong, but you do realize that you're spending a great deal of energy defending a member of one of the slimiest and corrupt families out there, correct? These people are not worth your time. Or are you one of their paid shills?